Wireless computer networks tend to suffer Quality of Service (QoS) issues due to increases in the number of users on the wireless network, and increases in data and bandwidth required for the vast range of application programs and services available to devices interfacing on the wireless network, such as multimedia streaming, video-chat, internet browsing, email, file sharing, cloud based internet services and other application programs.
This especially true with enterprise Wi-Fi or wireless hotspot networks in dense user environments—e.g., shopping malls, transportation hubs such as train stations and airports, as well as lecture and conference halls. In most wireless computer networks, users (also referred to herein as clients) connect to the wireless network through base stations, referred to herein as access points (“APs”), and the service set identifiers (“SSID”) of those APs.
Problems arise when the number of clients exceeds the number an AP can manage or support, which results in some clients not being able to connect. Alternatively, if an AP's capacity is suited for a large volume of clients, data rates may still be greatly reduced due such systems having limits on Wi-Fi access data rates to accommodate for a large volume of clients. Moreover, installing another AP with same SSID in the vicinity of a choke point does not fully solve the problem, because, in such a configuration, Wi-Fi clients are only designed to login to the AP with the strongest signal or the first AP detected. Such a system would not determine which AP would provide optimal QoS when one or more APs are available to provide wireless network access.
Certain prior attempts to resolve this problem use a method of reducing the radio frequency (“RF”) transmission power to reduce the Wi-Fi signal range or coverage. More APs can then be deployed in the same volume area and the system adjusts the transmitted RF power to limit client login. However, this does not address the issue of distributing the Wi-Fi client connection or balance data loading among several APs. What is needed is system and method for permitting clients to connect to a particular AP when other APs in the same wireless network are unable to support further clients.